IRGC intellgince chief in Syria Hojjatollah Omidvar. Via X.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that four of its “military advisers” have been killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Syrian capital, Damascus, on January 20 morning.
The airstrike hit a multi-store building in al-Mazzeh Western Villas, a highly-secured upscale neighborhood in western Damascus that is the home to the United Nations headquarters in Syria and several embassies.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency quoted a military official as saying that air defenses had managed to stop some of the missiles, but that the airstrike -which was launched from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights- killed and wounded some civilians. Buildings were also destroyed, it said.
In a brief statement, the IRGC said that the Israeli airstrike killed “a number of Syrian forces and four military advisers.” It later identified the people killed as Hojjatollah Omidvar, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi and Saied Karimi, without sharing their ranks.
Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that the IRGC’s Syria intelligence chief and his deputy were among those killed in the airstrike.
The intelligence chief is Omidvar, according to several sources, who said that he was also known as “Haj Sadegh” and “Yousef Omidzadeh.” He was responsible for collecting information and planning attacks against U.S. forces in Syria, according to a Washington Post report from last year.
In a statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Tehran “retains the right to respond to the terrorism of the Zionist entity at the right time and place.”
Israel has not commented on the airstrike, yet. For years it has carried out attacks against IRGC targets in Syria without claiming responsibility.
Such strikes have intensified since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out following the October 7 Palestinian surprise attack on Israel.
On December 2, two officers of the IRGC were killed in the town of Set Zaynab to the south of Damascus in a strike that was blamed on Israel. Another attack that targeted the Shia town on December 25 claimed the life of Quds Force senior commander Brigade General Seyed Razi Mousavi. Israel was also held responsible by both Iran and Syria.
The new alleged Israeli attack on the IRGC in Syria came a few days after Iran fired missiles at what it said were Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood close to the sprawling United States Consulate compound in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern autonomous region of Kurdistan.
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the zionist have no means to reach iran but the iranian can definitely reach isreal…i’m surprised they didn’t start launching missiles in isreal
the current situation with the blockade of the red sea works to iran’s advantage. israel, usa and west europe economies are all bleeding. the longer the bleeding goes on the weaker they will be. iran oil sales to the east carries on, it is not blocked.
yes we are bleeding in france. could be a good thing to sort many internal things by the way. no money then people can only focus on the most important things to “survive”.
israel wants escalation to force usa into the war and fight iran, but better iran waits for usa ships to run out of food and fuel so far from home. better put pressure on usa military suppliers and supporters in the region like bahrain
american ships are burning through supplies with yemen as it is. they supply lines in middle east are also suffering. while they claim no personel losses they are losing truck after truck of equipment and supplies. furthermore if china tiwan kicks off and south north korea kicks off in the next year or two, with ukriane as it is, they are too thin and can’t cover all areas.
with the last elections putting in the pro usa party usa is ok with taiwan for a few years. but i agree, the supply pressures from ukraine, israel and gulf/red sea regions must be immense. these are large areas.
the proxy war is heating up. netanyahu is going to get his way. the us will soon be at war with iran. aleluya. viva putin.
as ever, those s300 defences proving solid and impenetrable. it must be so very reassuring to have rus standing by one’s side…
didn’t use the s300. israel immediately attacks the launchers if they shoot down their missiles. syria lacks sufficient s300. the russians hoard them in their 2 main bases. there they have sufficient to hold out against what isreal has left. but they won’t fire however, if israel keeps supporting kiev, the military leadership in russia might provide assistance against isreal as the have been apparently does with turkish strikes on kurds who supoort kiev
i was being ironic. there’s nothing new here, irn’s brig-gen h*yd*r* was critical of s300/400 sam back in 2022, stating it was useless against stealth tech, even f16.
perhaps: 1. rus doesn’t want this weakness exposed so withdraws/disables s300/400 against idf, or 2. rus is actively assisting isr.
given syr has been too easily blitzed by isr since 2011, it doesn’t much matter which it is, as the result is the same – massive syr/irn destruction and loss.
s-200 take down f-35 and f-16.so no worries.
tell that to syr, which has been relentlessly hit by zio-nzi forces since 2011, and irn, the ground forces of which are relentlessly targeted! is rus a srn allie or a loyal frnd of isr – it can’t be both?
and of course regularly withholding the operating codes doesn’t help either…
it’s absolutely irresponsible to lose such important human assets so easily.
these guys have lax security. the way things have been going, i wouldn’t be surprised for some high ranking israelis to be whacked. iran is done watching this stuff happen and using soft means in response. ww3 proper is probably just around the corner. the veneer of decency has always been thin and see-through here, anyway. cleansing the earthly evil is long overdue. only people who have lived easy lives here at the expense of others will complain about the judgement being unfurled.
why don’t they gather and consolidate in al-mayadin nor deir ez-zur first? there is no need to gather the irgc top chiefs in damascus so close to the israel border. once many bavar-373 and other defensive security systems are perfectly set-up there, they just go in palmyra to enlarge the perfect security system. then homs and to the mediterranean see. an integrated defensive mesh from al-bukamal to tartus would be a strong accomplishement first.
zionist jews trying everything to get iran into conflict with us zionist shills.
yes, they are killing nazis
peaceful community got a big blow
allah the merciful just got a blow
a big explosive blow job that immediately sent them to heaven. masallah!
alhadulillah perfect.
finally these martyrs get what they deserve. they get a free ticket to heaven and 69 virgins.
love your arabix. yeah, they get chix with dix
muhammad approved!
they get 72 unfuckable fugly arab whorres. you should keep up with the numbers.
it was an important bitch
half price glue to sniff very important treat my senility
hello i’m the commander of syrian air defense ……………………laughter ensues
at this point my 7 year old nephew with his xbox controller could shoot down more israeli planes than the syrian military